Love, Indian Style

So I wanted to post yesterday - I had a mental outline and everything - but the power kept cutting out all afternoon so I gave up. That's what happens when everyone is using their air conditioning when it is sweltering, the net effect being that we all get to sit around in our sweat for a few hours. Every once in awhile I could get our power inverter working but I eventually gave up and sat in a dim room and cracked into my new Alison Weir book. That made the time pass well enough. In fact, I am enjoying it so much that I woke up at 4:30 this morning to read some more and then woke up again and read for about a half an hour. I love books like that.

I had a really fun morning yesterday. Some of the ladies from church and the neighborhood got together for a play date with their kids and invited me along. It was really nice to sit and chat in a casual environment and get to know some really interesting people. One of the women there, Michelle Jordan, teaches the Marriage Prep/Building a Successful Marriage class at church and we were talking about the differences between the western idea of relationships and the Indian idea. To be honest, she said that she still hadn't figured out how it works here. The idea of dating is still quite foreign to people here and arranged marriage is prevalent. In fact, Merinda, our hostess, was telling us that she and her husband were at a party once and were dancing together and having a good time. At the end of the party some of the people there asked if they had an arranged marriage. When Merinda said no, she was told "But you seem so happy together!" Apparently, "love marriages" are seen as less stable because they are built on infatuation. Arranged marriages allow people to grow up knowing each other and seeing each other in different lights, thus allowing for them to understand each other better. I can see how that would work here, because it doesn't seem that there is nearly as much opportunity for people to have social interaction here without it being deemed inappropriate or obscene.

I was reading the Times of India the other day and there was an article about the Morale Police. These dudes are freaky. There is no uniform code of what is considered immoral behavior, but they make it their job to chastise and punish anyone who they feel cross the line. This could include anything as innocuous as holding hands or even just sitting together. In one village on Valentine's Day they even declared it illegal for any man and woman to be seen walking together. This is insanity and people are starting to get really annoyed by it. In the paper there has been a lot of discussion as to the standards that are enforced here and how hypocritical they are. For example, there is no kissing in Bollywood films, but the commercials here insinuate sexual behavior all over the place. Handholding might be looked down on, but India has the largest AIDS population in the world. Women need to remain covered and chaste, but the depictions of the goddesses all show these Pamela Anderson like figures doing their utmost to please the gods. For Pete's sake, the Kama Sutra is one of India's greatest exports! I don't get it, but fortunately we western women are known for having loose morale character so I can hold Nathan's hand whenever I want!